Keeping the faith, praying for a miracle

Frigo’s eggplant Parmesan, Italian bread and cookies are on the menu. Twins Christina and Mary-Kate, born on Christmas Day 1991, juniors at Monson High School, do their homework. Sarah, a junior studying international relations and politics at Clark University in Worcester, calls. There is a DVD of “The Waltons” TV show to watch. Invariably, the family dogs will find something to bark at in the Monson night.

AnnMarie Richard, a daughter of Springfield’s South End neighborhood and member of the High School of Commerce Class of 1978, is cheerful.

She says there is always room for one more at her table. She talks about Christina, a pianist, winning a spirit award from the Monson Arts Festival. How well Mary-Kate is doing in school. About Sarah’s travels to Prague last summer.

AnnMarie mentions that her husband, Tim, recently was honored by Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell for more than two decades of service to the state’s correctional system. “October first was Tim Richard Day in Connecticut,” AnnMarie says with a “can-you-believe-it” sense of pride.

If you didn’t know, you would think AnnMarie Richard and problems were strangers.

But they know each other.

Well.

A year ago, Christina and Mary-Kate, who live with cerebral palsy, also were diagnosed with muscular dystrophy.

“I knew the road ahead was going to be long with many unexpected turns,” AnnMarie told me when I first interviewed her 10 years ago. “But, I was grateful that a road ahead actually existed.”

She meant it.

The family calendar is still jammed with doctor appointments, trips to the Shriners Hospital, and visits to occupational, physical and speech therapists. It is just part of this family’s life journey.

In the mid 1990s, AnnMarie returned to Springfield Technical Community College, where she studied to be a nurse.

Her daughters’ muscular dystrophy was another detour and was going to be met head-on with faith and the Richard family’s one-day-at-a-time approach of accomplishing what needed to be done. As simple and as profound as always.

In April of this year, AnnMarie, 49, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. The night before her surgery in July, Tim, a tower of power, rarely sick, collapsed at home.

AnnMarie, a nurse at the Weldon Center in Springfield who specializes in working with patients with major head trauma, was convinced her husband had suffered a stroke.

AnnMarie and Tim underwent surgeries – at Dana Farber and Baystate - within days of each other.

Both are now undergoing radiation and chemotherapy treatments – at different hospitals on opposite ends of the state. Tim has retired. AnnMarie isn’t sure when she can go back to work.

“AnnMarie is an amazing woman,” friend Linda Bajumpaa, of Springfield, wrote in an e-mail. “She is probably the strongest woman I have ever known.”

AnnMarie’s cousin Paula Maak, of Southampton, echoed the sentiment, adding, “She has such great faith. And, she really lives it every single day. She is such an inspiration. Ask anyone who knows her.”

On the evening we talk, AnnMarie says she had a good day.

“Some days,” she admits, “because of the treatment, I feel like a wet dish rag. I’m told my treatment is working.”

As for Tim, “We’re praying for a miracle,” AnnMarie says. “We believe miracles happen. What we aim for every day is to concentrate on what we can control – take care of our children, our treatment and our bills - and what can’t control, we hand over to God.”

Friends and family offer additional support, including planning a spaghetti supper benefit for AnnMarie and Tim on Oct. 17 from 6 to 11 p.m. at the Elks Lodge at 440 Tiffany St. in Springfield. Tickets are $15. An account in the family name has also been established at the Monson Savings Bank. Call (413) 527-6491 for more details.

The only time AnnMarie’s composure breaks is when she talks about the spaghetti supper and the attempts by friends to alleviate some of the financial burdens.

“Tim and I are used to being the givers,” she says. “Do you know what I mean? It’s hard to be on the receiving end. But my cousin Paula asked me: ‘Don’t you enjoy doing for others?’ I said ‘Yes, of course.’ And she said ‘Then let us do for you for a change.”‘